Effective therapies and health practices make crack addiction treatable.Knowing how to help crack addicts is a major drug rehab program focus which can save lives.If you seek crack addiction treatment or cocaine abuse recovery, call Action Recovery Group drug rehab at 801-475-4673.

Action Recovery Group offers additional treatment research and basic information on the use, addiction, and abuse effects from crack cocaine on this page.

What is Crack?

Called “crack,” the stimulant made from cocaine created an epidemic of addiction and personal destruction beginning in the late 1970’s and taking off in the 1980’s. Inner cities have been devastated by the pernicious effects of the cheap cocaine derivative, crack. Because of the inexpensive cost compared to the pure powder common to wealthier drug abusers, cocaine was made available to the masses through the crack formula exacerbating an already dangerous illicit drug problem that had penetrated every city in America.

Crack was developed during a time of cocaine glut in the illicit drug distribution culture and made to reach more people inexpensively compared to the pure power form. Some of the other slang names used to describe crack cocaine include:Crack cocaine is a mass-produced, lost cost stimulant derivative of pure cocaine. The cocaine powder is mixed with water and baking soda and brought to a boil temperature. The result is small, hardened rock forms of cocaine which can then be broken down in quantities to sell cheaply.

Candy

Rock and Hard Rock

Gravel, Hail, Crumbs

Hail, Sleet, Tornado

Crack is usually smoked. Small “crack pipes” allow the user to inhale the vapors and get a quick and intense “high” or euphoric feeling. Smoking crack—or “freebasing”—creates a substantially higher likelihood of addiction due the rapid way it becomes ingested into the bloodstream. Extremely dangerous and toxic, crack cocaine has resulted in sudden death and long-term health effects.

Crack Abuse and Effects

The stimulating effect creates a false sense of heightened energy and awareness with a resulting crash afterwards. A “high” can last up to 20 minutes before the wearing off causes the user to want to match the last high with even more of the cheap drug.Smoking crack cocaine causes almost immediate absorption into the soft tissues of the lungs. As with other forms of cocaine the brain’s dopamine receptors are affected which results in temporary but intense pleasure sensations.

Some of the effects of crack abuse include:

Increased Blood Pressure

Rapid Heart Rate

Sense of Euphoria and Energy

Anxiety and Hyperactivity

Loss of Appetite

These combined effects lead to addiction. Unfortunately a building tolerance in the brain requiring increased use for the same effect, may lead to further health challenges and long term abuse.

The inability to say “no” grows as a user continues to seek a greater high with each use. A spiraling effect to out-of-control stages only causes greater dependency and more difficult withdrawal. Without a drug treatment regime affiliated with a rehab program, the possible consequences from crack use can destroy the abuser’s life along with many around him or her.

Addiction and Treatment

Because crack addiction adds undesirable dimensions to a person’s actions and characteristics in employment and relationships the costs far exceed all temporary values found in brain chemical sensations of pleasure. Health invariably suffers yet an addicted person will go to great lengths including crime to pay for the ongoing delusion of control. The delusion that “I can handle this addiction” follows each increased episode of abuse.

What shatters the delusion is a realization that addiction is not something fought through good intentions and willpower alone. The signs of addiction are too apparent to others and at a point of finally seeking help the drug abuser awakens to the realities, which may include behavioral symptoms such as:

High Anxiety

Deepening Depression

Paranoia

Hallucinations

Aggressiveness

Withdrawal symptoms embrace the forgoing list but also may include deepening psychosis and physical pain.This increases the likelihood that a crack user will seek a “hit” just to rid himself of the withdrawal pains.A vicious cycle ensues.

A drug rehabilitation treatment program as offered through the Action Recovery Group can intercede. If crack cocaine intersession does not become achieved the user may jeopardize long term health and even death from:

Seizures

Stroke

Toxicity to Internal Organs

Cardiac Arrest

Respiratory Failure

Crack AddictionTreatment Options

Using cocaine is not only addictive but a behavioral habituation process that requires intervention in counseling and medical treatment. Approaches in psychology and related therapies in behavioral science can help begin the healing and permanent withdrawal from the addictive qualities of crack cocaine. Mental health concerns are primary when addressing the physical effects that withdrawal can cause. Professional treatment by the Action Recovery Group offers long term approaches for overcoming the addiction impulse inherent in the abuse of cocaine.

A Program for Drug Rehabilitation

When someone you love needs a lifeline you are there for them. You can count upon Action Recovery Group for the help you need as well! The Action Recovery Group in Ogden Utah has a reputation as one of the premier addiction treatment facilities available in the Inter-Mountain West. Our therapy models are based on nearly 30 years of successfully treating drug addiction. To discover more about this program, we encourage you to call Action Recovery Group at 801-475-HOPE.